Well, it apparently comes to us all, well, all the guys anyway. The wumen turn into their moms, which is apparently just as horrible a fate. I've tried so hard to be different but sometimes the reality is it's an unavoidable certainty. I might as well put on the sock garters, tuck that big old shirt into my Y'fronts (Underpants) and go mow the lawn. I'll be pottering before long. *sigh!*

My dad was cool in some ways (aero-engineer with Rolls Royce and crash site investigator) and could build/fix anything by reading about it, but he had some funny ideas as all dads do. When you have a kid of your own you then realise just how much has seeped past your defences and how like dear old pops you have become.

You use words like "responsible" or "reason" and say things like "don't come running to me" and "tidy your room" Now they all sound very simple phrases but when you say them in context it just takes you back to when they were said to you and you promised you would never say them.

We gave our dad a neck tie.
It had the word WIN on it a hundred times.
The 70's had lots of economic inflation.
A political slogan of the guys my father hated was "Whip Inflation Now"
He was not amused.
We just thought the tie was full of Win!

Soundtracks are probably the best music scored these days. By the way, has there been any good cyberpunk since Bladerunner ( the movie) and Count Zero? Please let me know! I am subsiding on Firefly which is more Antebellum Civil War but more romantic than what I am living now. (but better writing than I have seen since Babylon 5).

And don't think this is all about sounding like yer dad. I imagine the things my Mom said that I vowed I would never repeat.

And I have done, repeatably..

At least my ankles don't "klack-klack-klack" like hers did when she walked, and my sister and I still laugh silly whenever one of us says, "klack-klack-klack"

At least, I don't hear the boys laughing that way, yet.....

I'm sure my boys will have something like this to refer to in the future that will embarrass me.

BTY, I just finished this amazing book, Bonhoeffer, by Eric Metaxas. Hubby got this for me for "Saturnalia", and I could not put it down. My Dad was drafted into the Luftwaffe at age 16, and he shared some interesting insights with me. This book captures the best of it.

I'm getting there. My nieces really bring it out whenever I'm around them. Particularly carrying them around the house like some sort of dinosaur. I find myself really wanting a robe and slippers because the mornings are just too damned cold otherwise. Shit.

Blade Runner (great movie!) was based on the book "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep" by Philip K. Dick... the book was from the 60's and the movie from the early 80's as everyone probably knows.

I used play the tabletop RPG "Cyberpunk" with friends when I was in high school in the late 80's... at about the same time William Gibson wrote "Neuromancer" which made the Cyberspace (and it's subculture: Cyberpunk) famous. I'm not 100% sure, but I believe that the Cyberpunk roleplaying game took it's name from William Gibson fiction and many people consider William Gibson to have been the progenitor of what we now think of as Cyberpunk.

The essence of cyberpunk incorporates hacker culture with robotics and cybernetics in a backdrop of corporate espionage, politics and all-pervading penetration into society of global (especially asian) culture. Yakuza crime and ronin samurai in business suits feature prominently.

For anyone who loves all things cyberpunk, I highly recommend reading Neuromancer as a primer, as well as watching the movie Johnny Mnemonic (somewhat campy, but highly entertaining and captures much of the essence of the cyberpunk vision).

I think the Firefly show does reflect some of the cyberpunk idea at times (also a very cool show).

A bit of a TL;DR but I thought since it was brought up, I would share my passing interest in this.

Hoboman wrote:I forgot for a moment what forum I was on like Bonn-o-Tron.

God, I do. Excuse me, but my Dad had no sons so I got drafted in the role of eldest son .

I tell you, what kills me the most are the chores my Dad had me do because he had no sons to pass them on to, but now I have to do them for my boys because even though Hubby says I'm sheltering them to death, he won't make them do it for me.

I DON"T WANT TO PICK UP ANY MORE DOG POP! OR WEED THE YARD ( I specifically picked a house with no grass to mow because I grew tired of doing the chore with a brat in a back pack). Oh, look, spider veins, I need support stockings myself!

suemac3000 wrote:I tell you, what kills me the most are the chores my Dad had me do because he had no sons to pass them on to, but now I have to do them for my boys because even though Hubby says I'm sheltering them to death, he won't make them do it for me.

Is he the only parent in the family? Why don't you make them do it?

Natalya wrote:What's that? I can't hear you over the sound of how banned you are.

My mom had me washing dishes as soon as I was tall enough to get my hands in the sink.So less than age 10 maybe?

We did all sorts of household chores and mowed the lawn and shoveled snow and vacuumed stuff.There was a chart on the wall showing what we were supposed to be doing.I have 2 brothers so the jobs rotated around.

My father started working 3-11pm, my mom worked til 5pm.So supper after age 12 was:Mom: "I'm making this, if you want some I'll make more, if not, make what you want, there is the refrigerator, there is the stove."

So by 15, I was skilled in all manner of house activities and could even feed myself.At college it was funny that so many guys had no clue how to boil water.

Tzan wrote:We did all sorts of household chores and mowed the lawn and shoveled snow and vacuumed stuff.There was a chart on the wall showing what we were supposed to be doing.I have 2 brothers so the jobs rotated around.

We had the same thing, except I had something like seventeen brothers and sisters so we ended up using a punchcard system and it got pretty involved. Chores were assigned by teams, with each of us assigned to a revolving set of individual roles within the team; we operated the kitchen and dining room especially like a well-oiled machine. I grew up completely prepared for a successful career in restaurant floor-managership.

Natalya wrote:What's that? I can't hear you over the sound of how banned you are.